Two learners were recently given bursaries to further their studies. This brings the total number of learners who received bursaries in the past three years to 10.
This was on September 22 at the IEC hall within the Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM) building and the bursaries are made possible through a partnership between the municipality, Maxprof as well as EST Sourcing.
Addressing the crowd during the ceremony, RWCLM Executive Mayor Gladys Khoza said she will always champion education and youth empowerment.
“Our future generation of leaders are gathered here with us to seize the opportunity and educate themselves as well as build a South Africa that will realise its own potential. There are a lot of people who are looking for this opportunity, never lose it and know that education is a good choice.
“The underpinning concept of a bursary programme is to empower financially disadvantaged youth through access to tertiary education and that’s what this programme aims to achieve. I wish to see such initiatives grow and attract many stakeholders, as this will help close the gap of unemployment that increases poverty and weakens our economy,” said Khoza.
She added that when they advertised the bursary, they received responses from people from Finsbury, Westonaria, Toekomsrus, Bekkersdal, Mohlakeng and Greenhills among others.
The Randfontein Herald also spoke to EST Sourcing director Renusha Ramdas who said that they are happy to be making a difference.
EST Sourcing is a sister company to Maxprof and manages its corporate social responsibility through a bursary and learnership programme.
“The founding company contributes R1m every year in bursaries to disadvantaged youths in all the municipalities they operate in. At this municipality, we have given out bursaries to the value of R43 000 for two students and we’ve also given R160 000 to eight students for the past two years. Although this is the case, we also handed out gifts as a token of appreciation to those who received the bursaries previously.
“We can help students by giving them food and money but if we educate them, it will mean more,” said Ramdas, who added that Maxprof wants to invest in the youth sustainably.
